The occurrence of diabetes is widespread, with approximately 8% of the population in the United States suffering from diabetes. Diabetes is a chronic disease characterized by high blood sugar due to the body's inability to effectively produce and/or use insulin. Diabetes can lead to a variety of physical complications, including but not limited to renal failure, blindness, nerve damage, heart disease, sleep apnea, and celiac disease. For example, in the United States, diabetes is the leading cause of renal failure, blindness, amputation, stroke, and heart attack. Also in the United States, diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death and has been shown to reduce the life expectancy of middle-aged adults by about five to ten years.
The most common form of diabetes is type two diabetes mellitus which is associated with hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, β-cell dysfunction, and dysregulated hepatic gluconeogenesis. Persons suffering from type two diabetes experience a loss of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion related to the impaired release of stored insulin granules from β-cells in the first phase of insulin secretion. In the second phase of insulin secretion, persons suffering from type two diabetes experience a gradual loss of the ability to actively synthesize insulin in response to glucose stimuli.
In addition to type II diabetes, there are a number of related conditions defined by hyperglycemia that are also increasing in the general population. For example, from 2005 to 2008, 35 percent of U.S. adults ages 20 years or older had prediabetes (defined by a fasting glucose or A1C levels; see CDC). As such, new therapies for effectively treating conditions related to hyperglycemia are needed.